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Originally Posted by aron
It seems the focus of God's commands and the testimony of Jesus changed from "God loved the world and sent His Son" and "love your neighbor" in the gospels, and "whoever believes and confesses Jesus as Lord will be saved" in the epistles. Now, the commands of God and the testimony of Jesus is about "one church per city", and "the seven stages of the church", if you believe Witness Lee's exposition on Revelations 1 through 3.
Why does the number seven signify "sevenfold intensification" with the seven Spirits, but then "completion in God's move" with the seven churches in Asia? If you're going to be simple, at least be consistent. This doesn't at all look like Occam's razor to me. Where's textual evidence that John might have thought this way? No; it's rather about satisficing Lee's hermeneutical agenda.
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I would say the testimony of Jesus is all those things. As Lee would say, the "testimony of Jesus" is an all-inclusive term. But you err if you believe the testimony of Jesus has nothing to do with the church. We could also say that the testimony of Jesus is the church. The local church is about making the testimony of Jesus practical. The very existence of the church is because of the testimony of Jesus (his living, death, and resurrection). Did Jesus's living, death and resurrection result in Roman Catholicism? is Roman Catholicism the testimony of Jesus? No, it is the testimony of Roman Catholicism, the Pope, the Vatican. Only the local church which Christ established is the testimony of Jesus. At the time of the New Testament, the church in Jerusalem, the church in Ephesus, the church in Corinth etc were the testimony of Jesus.